Proposal to let citizens, not lawmakers, draw congressional maps could appear on November ballot

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- A new way of drawing Ohio’s congressional and legislative maps that takes the pen away from lawmakers could be put before voters this November if enough petition signatures are collected by July 4.

The proposed redistricting process, backed by the Ohio Democratic Party and union groups, calls for a “citizens commission” to draw the maps that are not skewed to favor a political party. If approved, new districts would be in place for the 2014 election.

The proposal emerged after majority Republicans last year drew uncompetitive districts that would help keep them in power. Good government groups and Democrats criticized the GOP over the new boundaries, and for crafting the maps in secret.

“There’s a lot of consensus that our current system is broken,” said Ann Henkener of the League of Women Voters of Ohio. “One party really has their thumb on the scale. They have an unnatural, unfair advantage.”

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The solution, pushed by a coalition called Voters First, is a 12-member citizen commission to draw new congressional and legislative lines every 10 years. The commission would adopt a plan based on four criteria — keeping communities whole, achieving competitiveness, maintaining compactness and having districts with leanings reflecting how Ohioans actually have voted.

Voters First calls itself nonpartisan, but Republican Secretary of State Jon Husted said the Ohio Democratic Party and U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown’s campaign recently signed up with his office to pay signature gatherers. Catherine Turcer, chair of Voters First, acknowledged that union groups have contributed money to the signature-gathering effort.

“The system is broken but I don’t believe this is the solution,” said Husted, who crafted his own redistricting solution, which ultimately failed, when he was in the Senate. “Hopefully, it will wake up Republicans and thoughtful Democrats, realizing it’s time they work together on a consensus proposal.”

But the strong push to collect signatures before this week’s deadline might give voters the chance to decide on the new proposal before Husted’s hope for bipartisanship has a chance.

Supporters of the new plan have fanned out across the state in recent weeks to gather the 385,245 valid signatures required to put their proposed constitutional amendment on the Nov. 6 ballot.

If the group does succeed in getting its proposal on the ballot, Republicans almost certainly will launch a counter-campaign.

Rep. Louis Blessing, the second-ranking House Republican, said the proposal is deeply flawed.

Blessing, of the Cincinnati area, said the so-called independent commission would be made up of political cronies and that the commission would ultimately slant toward one party.

“This entire proposal is a sham and charade,” Blessing wrote in a memo to House Speaker William G. Batchelder. “Ohio voters have chosen the people who draw lines. This group apparently did not like the result, so they not only want to undo a free and open vote, they want to prohibit voters from participating in the future, and determine control of the General Assembly and Congress by gambling!”

Any Ohio citizen could apply to be on the proposed commission, although elected officials, their immediate family members, well-heeled donors, and others would be ineligible. A panel of Ohio appeals court judges would select 42 people as potential commission members.

The House speaker and the minority House leader then could each knock off as many as nine people from the pool, and from the remaining group, nine commission members would be randomly drawn. Those nine members would choose the final three members with an eye toward geographic diversity, and the panel would be split equally among Democrats, Republicans and independents or third-party members.

Turcer, of Voters First, said the commission was designed to reduce partisanship as much as possible, but she acknowledged politics would be impossible to eliminate.

She said Republicans’ criticisms are no surprise because they just drew the maps that will stand for the next decade — unless the proposal is adopted.

“In a winner-take-all system, the winners are going to like the system,” she said.

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